Continuation From The Awakening, Chapter 29, p 160
by Jenny L
Summary: Just a little bit of alternate reality. The night Chloe spends awake at the truck stop ends a bit differently. Not my characters, just taking them from a test drive again...


Hello all! So, I decided to whip this little one up when I was bored the other day. Just a little piece of alternate reality. It takes place in The Awakening when Derek and Chloe have to spend the night in the woods behind the truck stop. Hope you enjoy it! Thanks for the lovely reviews! You make me want to write! Constructive criticism always appreciated.

The Darkest Powers: The Awakening, Kelley Armstrong

Chapter 29, p. 160 (e-book version)

Book Quote:

"I thought of waking Derek. He wouldn't complain. But after what he'd just been through, it seemed silly to say I couldn't bear being out here with a murder re-enactment playing behind me. I did nudge him a few times, though, hoping he's wake up."

Chloe pulled her knees up to her chest and tried to wrap herself into a tight little ball – small and unnoticeable. The girl…the victim…was she still out here? Was she buried somewhere in these woods? And what about the man…her murderer? Had he ever been caught and punished? Was he even dead? Did a person need to die in order to etch something into time? Or if the action was abhorrent enough, did it play out anyway? She knew these re-enactments did not have any consciousness behind them, so could this guy still be living his life like he never brutally killed a girl in the woods?

She shivered. Oh yes. These unanswered questions were making her feel so much better. She shook her head and moved closer to Derek, nudging him a little harder this time. Then she felt guilty of depriving him of some much needed rest. After all, _she_ wasn't the one whose body tried to completely switch physiology.

So she just sat there, scared and cold, humming an old Monkees tune and trying not to think of the murder being replayed behind her. She tried not to think of the silver flash of the knife. Of the girl's throat being opened up. Again and again.

God, she hoped there was no intelligence behind it.

The wind cut through her. The trees offered little protection against it. It seemed to seek her out, dodging trees and bushes just to chill her. She shivered with the cold this time as Derek turned toward her in his sleep. She could feel the heat radiating off of him still. Chloe sighed and lay down beside him, curling up and hiding from the wind chill. He made a pretty good barricade, actually. She was sure he'd love to here that_._

_Sure, Derek, you act like a jerk and kind of despise me but you sure do block the wind like a brick wall. _Chloe smiled at the thought.

When she had lain beside him Chloe had been sure that she wouldn't fall asleep. She had actually been pretty sure that she would never sleep again. But she was exhausted and when his heat warmed her, she felt safe and then drowsy. She didn't want to sleep. She didn't want to dream of that girl… She knew she should get up, but the wind was so cold and she didn't want to leave the shelter of him. So she kept getting sleepier and sleepier, trying to shake herself awake when she realised she was in danger of drifting off.

She inched closer to Derek's sleeping form, resting her head on her arm and watched his breathing chest. In and out. Inhale, exhale. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier. His breathing was hypnotic. She decided to just close her eyes for a bit. Just a rest. She totally wouldn't sleep; she'd just snooze a little. Sleep logic. So she closed her eyes.

And when she opened them back up, it was light out.

Chloe realized that she was no longer beside Derek. She was pressed against him. One of his arms was thrown haphazardly over her torso and the other was under her head. She was staring at his neck, watching his pulse thud through his skin. She felt her face flush red. She felt him stir against her and she didn't know why but she snapped her eyes shut. He could still probably hear her heart hammering in her chest.

She heard his breath hitch as he opened her eyes and discovered her in his arms and could almost see his cheeks redden through her eyelids. What would he do? Jump away seemed like a bit of an over reaction. Carefully slide his arm from out from under her before she woke sounded more like Derek's style. Well, sort of. Actually, jumping away and crying out in disgust sounded pretty plausible too, come to think of it.

But he hadn't moved. Not a muscle.

Chloe concentrated on the brightness of the day through her eyelids; of how the sunlight shining down through the trees made geometric shapes. She concentrated on the birds singing 'good morning' to each other. Anything other than the silence from the man beside her.

Derek carefully moved his arm from around her and Chloe's heart fell. She hadn't realized how much she had liked it there until it was gone. _Just a little bit more_, she wanted to say. _Just a few more minutes so that we can forget what we are and who we're running from. Just forget._

She expected him to wake her, but he didn't. Chloe felt his fingers tenderly brush a lock of hair from her forehead and she forced herself to breath normally. He brushed his thumb against her cheek for just a moment and she ached to feel his touch again. But instead, she heard him sigh and his knuckles crack as he squeezed his hand into a fist. She knew the moment was over.

He cleared his throat.

"Chloe…" He said softly.

Fighting down the disappointment, she opened her eyes to his pulse throbbing in his neck. She opened her eyes wide as the sleepiness was finally jolted fully from her, and tilted her head up to look at his face, cheeks burning. She caught his eye and noticed and small, secret smile touching his lips that made her stomach flip.

"Ummmm…Good morning?" She said uncertainly, biting her lip and giving him and apologetic look.

"Good morning." He murmured, gazing at her with such…such…_something._ Something that made her feel warm and safe but also made her heart pound. It was too much and she sat up.

"Yeah, we gotta go." He said gruffly, sitting up beside her.

Which was when she noticed that he wasn't wearing pants.

Chloe nodded, not trusting her voice.

"Are…" He said, avoiding her eyes. "Are you okay? I mean, about last night…I mean…watching me…" He shrugged. "The change. I know it's horrible."

"What?" She said, recovering her voice. "No, that's not bothering me at all."

"You're very quiet."

Ending book excerpt:

" 'That's not why'

I tried to duck having to explain, but he kept pushing, and it came down to telling the truth or letting him think that watching him Change had put me in a state of shock. I told him about the girl."


End file.
